Jim Timmermann: Better teachers deserve better pay

Jim Timmermann

Tuesday

May 17, 2011 at 12:01 AMMay 17, 2011 at 2:16 PM

People often bemoan how the tenure system makes it difficult for schools to get rid of unsatisfactory teachers. Fortunately, really bad teachers are few and far between. The good teachers are far more common, but that makes it even more frustrating that we don’t have a structure to reward them.

My four kids range in age from 9 to 14, so my family has seen a couple dozen elementary and middle school teachers throughout the school years.

The majority I’d rate as good or very good — my kids made demonstrable progress under their instruction. A few teachers have been excellent. One might qualify for the title “miracle worker.”

At the other end, we’ve also suffered through some mediocre teachers, and a couple who were even worse than that. Fortunately, our kids bounced back from those experiences; but one period a day, even one hour a week, is too much school time to go to waste.

And there’s the root of one of the features of the school system that aggravates me most. Assuming they’ve been working the same number of years, the extraordinary teachers and their below-average counterparts receive essentially the same compensation. The system offers no reward for excellence and imposes no penalties for mediocrity.

The two most important factors in furthering a child’s education are parental support and dedicated, conscientious teachers. But instead of designing a system that encourages the very best people to enter — and stay — in the classroom, we have one where seniority trumps ability and pay is not linked with performance.

Great teachers may get a few pats on the back and the fulfillment of knowing they’ve enriched their students’ lives, but in America, the standard practice of showing we value someone is paying them more money.

Knowing that you’re busting your rear end at work while the person in the next room is coasting to retirement while earning just as much can be a demoralizing experience. Psychological fulfillment doesn’t help outstanding teachers pay the bills for a growing family or put their kids through college.

When I was a newspaper manager, I gave my better reporters larger raises and tried to swing some bonus money their way to thank them and encourage them to stay. The below-average reporters got smaller raises or none at all, a signal that they weren’t as valuable and needed to do better or find employment elsewhere. It’s a pretty simple system employed in thousands of workplaces. Why can’t it happen in schools?

Experience counts in the workplace, of course, but only to a degree. If I want to hire a painter or a carpenter to work on my house, I look for the most skilled worker, not necessarily the older one. And if their talents are equal, I don’t feel compelled to pay the 50-year-old more than the 30-year-old.

Many teachers resist the idea of “merit pay.” I would, too, if merit pay were based only on standardized test scores. There’s reluctance in the education field to make value judgments, to recognize that not everyone is equal.

We can recognize and identify excellent teachers. They’re not always the “fun” ones the kids like or the “flashy” ones parents might notice. They’re the ones who can get kids of all backgrounds engaged and excited, who can neutralize the discipline problems and whose students consistently make more progress than their peers. It takes close observation by principals to make a good judgment, not just a simple glance at test scores, but it’s hardly an impossible task.

People often bemoan how the tenure system makes it difficult for schools to get rid of unsatisfactory teachers. Fortunately, really bad teachers are few and far between. The good teachers are far more common, but that makes it even more frustrating that we don’t have a structure to reward them, encourage them and keep them in the classroom.

As a society, we say there’s nothing more important than giving our kids a good education. If that’s so, why don’t we reward those who do it best?

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